where is this a&e? maybe foreign types are more likely to get injured/ill and they're not in their usual environment. If i get walked into/nearly walked into in the street it's usually a foreign person

If people arent registered with a GP, don't understand the out of hours service or don't think they can get a same day appointment at their surgery they go to A&E (wasting time and space and not getting the treatment they need).

part of the problem is A&E would never turn anyone away so people know they're definitely going to be seen so it's a very lazy fallback option. (was about to go on about this a bit more but nobody needs to know this stuff).

Further to points (DarwinDude especially) made upthread - there's also the fact that a lot of economic migrants come from places where they are unable to access healthcare. So for them to become a citizen and be able to access healthcare free at the point of service is an offer they take up liberally. I guess, for many people, simply being in a hospital is an experience that they actually want to have...

There is, however, a troubling proportion (small, representative of the general population at large but, still, worth considering) who repeatedly visit hospitals in attempts to be signed off on incapacity benefits. So there's undoubtedly some repeat visitors in there who are trying to badger the NHS to sign them off... (but, as I said, I don't think the prevalance is more than in the population at large - it's just more visible in the hospital waiting room).

...for a lot of people from other countries, I would assume that it's a simple binary logic of `I'm ill - I go to hospital` rather than `I'm ill - I go onto NHS website and see which healthcare provider in my local area is best suited to my needs`. Not everyone understands our system!

I was sat next to someone with a head injury who wouldn't believe we weren't in Salford then when we got seen first he started opening his head wound more to make it bleed everywhere so he'd get seen first.